Residence

Mountlake Terrace, WA, USA

Place of Birth

Tucson, AZ, USA

Personal Statement

impression / expression

Or

(one dude’s thoughts on…)

Nature That Art

For me, Art is that place where feeling inspires the transformation of an experiential medium. A successful work of art will resonate with the quality that inspired it. My goal with art is to balance the emotion that inspires a work with the discipline of the medium chosen to carry its expression.

Balance is Beautiful.

So why paint? I paint to feel worthy of the beauty I perceive. I paint to express my highest aspirations, and the joy and pain of my life. I paint to feel rich. I paint because sometimes there’s an image I have to see. I paint to discover who I am, when I am, free.

Word.

Sometimes it is tough to be a good human. Living your potential, riding that edge, enriching the people around you, taking life personally, loving and being loved…growing within…the chaos. We don’t always get to know how we will respond in new situations. But isn’t that the point? Emotion enlivens our experience, makes it real; incites us to care enough to find the heights and depths within ourselves. And that is what we celebrate. Heroism is stepping up to the challenge and mystery of existence, the will to be sincere.

Genuine. 

I find comfort in recognizing that I am OF nature, I am from here, ya’know? I am a pART of this larger process… a Human, an Earthling!

As such, I am growing, adapting, changing, moving, sometimes very rapidly and sometimes still,

when it is pARTicularly good,

I forget to consider myself, and time. 

inspiration / aspiration / expiration

life is

breathin’

Thank You

for the gift

of attention

                            enjoy the show!

Biography

Hi, I’m Zal.

I was born in 1975 in Tucson, Arizona. My earliest companions were stacks of Legos and piles of science fiction books.

I grew up with a strong single mom, moved around from school to school most of my early academic life, neither of my parents had finished college at that time. I first heard about art as a career choice in my 8th grade art class.  I have felt a calling since that moment. For many years I was most interested in craft, or how paintings are put together. For a time I worked with the Tucson Arts Brigade as a volunteer bringing arts education into elementary schools, and co-founded a small artists’ collective in a historic building downtown, called Shoe City. In 1996 I moved to NYC to pursue studies with Myron Barnstone at The Barnstone Studios in Coplay, PA.

While waiting tables in NYC I literally fell into the wine trade and began working with Michael Green, wine consultant for Gourmet Magazine. The wine trade afforded me access to mythical experiences with wine and food, but left no time to paint. I became an independent wine consultant, a sommelier, achieved my Higher Certificate from the W.S.E.T., and passionately explored the mystery of wine. The study of wine demanded that I develop my listening skills, as well as a method for articulating the experience of my senses. Slowly though, my desire to paint overwhelmed me and I had to move back to the desert to pursue the muse.

After watching the movie “Slam” featuring Saul Williams, I began speaking my poems out loud, which led to weekly performances of original material for about five years (1999-2004), a continuous video project and other articulations incorporating verbal and visual media.

I moved to Seattle to pursue a career as an artist in 2005. I have participated in the Pioneer Square Artwalk (2005-2007) and shown my paintings in Café’s, Gift Galleries, Electronic Music Festivals and local businesses.

Recently, a friend of my mother’s submitted my work to the Toledo Museum of Art (January, 2008). I received a positive letter in response to the work, and I am enjoying more and more interactions with creative professionals and art patrons.

In addition to my painting, I desire to realize a variety of projects that include multimedia, video, and installations with sound and light. I intend to continue to share what I find beautiful.

I do not know if Artists are born, or if they are made. I am not always sure I know what Art is. I feel compelled to express my experience of change. Painting, writing, performing is how I understand more of who I am, what I am about and how this fits within the larger context of social structures.

I am thankful for many teachers and positive influences. I regularly find myself surrounded by amazing people, demonstrating positive expressions and disciplined, conscious action!

I continue to dig on the works of the OP Art, Bauhaus, Minimalist, Cubist, Futurist, Surrealist, Visionary as well as other ideas in paint, in art, in creative imaging.

Mostly, I just work to keep painting and follow the brightest parts of feeling and possibility that occur to me.

Thank you for your interest and attention. Enjoy the show!

Artist's Website

www.zalmania.com

Links to buy work

Please contact Zalman directly for pricing.